Faith In Fast Cars

So a week has gone by since my big announcement and now the time has come for my first real entry...

So below you'll find how I'm planning to do these blog for this year.

And I mentioned this before, but just to make it clear...

I WILL be blogging every single day of 2008...

however, I will only be making posts once a week, on every Tuesday, of every week.

But yeah, below is the post for this past week, enjoy :)

- Wednesday, 01/02/08 -

(Bedroom before leaving)

The second day of the year was a cold but sunny one.

It drizzled snow here in Murfreesboro for most of the morning.

Today I started really getting ready for my trip to California...

I have yet to begin packing though, I figure I'll save that for the day I'm planning to leave, which is Friday.

I bought U2's "The Joshua Tree" today at the lovely Target in town,

and I took a longer drive than usual tonight simply because of how amazing of a night drive album it is.

While I was driving I started to think about my drive to California that's coming up (which is a 32 hour drive total) and started to get quite stoked for the trip.

Most people would probably dread a 32 hour drive alone,

but to be honest, I couldn't be more excited.

I just know that the trip is literally going to be the actual starting point of the next step for Backseat Goodbye.

I can't fucking wait to get to Encinitas, get my studio built, and get started on recording the new album.

Other than that, today has been quite uneventful.

Tomorrow is set to be what I'm calling my "Goodbye Day".

I'm going to be hanging out with some of my close friends here for the last time before I leave.

Plus I think tomorrow I'll begin the first stages of packing.

Hell, I really don't know how to pack for the next two to three months of my life.

We'll see how it goes.

Until tomorrow...

- Thursday, 01/03/08 - 

Sometimes plans don't go as planned,

regardless I try to make the best of them.

By the time afternoon hit, "Goodbye Day" (as I called it), had turned into a mess.

Pretty much all of my friends the day was revolved around ended up having to work.

Long story short, I was bummed.

BUT, fear not...

because by the end of the day it all turned around and I ended up seeing Juno with two of my roomates.

Let me just say, Juno, was an amazing movie.

I'll definitely be buying the soundtrack on iTunes today for my trip to Californialand.

Speaking of that trip,

I'm leaving for it tonight, at midnight.

And actually, I didn't know about it until yesterday, but there are literally terrible thunderstorms and fucking blizzards on my route.

But of course, Roxy and I ("Roxy" is what I've named my car), shall still journey on...

so hopefully our trip will stay smooth the whole way.

Other than seeing that movie, nothing exciting really happened today....

I can assure you though, by the time Friday through Sunday roll around I'll have better stuff to type about.

- Friday, 01/04/08 -

Today's the day...

or, tonight's the night, rather.

I'm putting the finishing touches on packing, and in about an hour or two I'll be on the road to California.

My route for the trip is luckily putting me just under all of the bad weather in the West, so it's looking to hopefully be a smooth trip still.

We'll see how it goes.

- Saturday, 01/05/08 -

The trip began at around 11pm.

It was the first time I've ever almost came to tears closing the door as I left friends.

I drove until about 5:30am and decided it was a good time to stop before I ended up with my car flipped upside down in a ditch.

So I stopped off at a rest stop just outside of Texas, somewhere in Arkansas.

I got some terribly uncomfortable sleep for about an hour (I couldn't lean my seat back because of how much music equipment was in my back seat, so I tried laying down in a quite awkward position sideways in both of my front seats with my center console making quite the ugly obstacle to manuever my body on without it becoming immediately unbearable to lay on) and then I decided to just go get a room for a few hours.

I then found myself at a lovely trashy Motel 6 about two miles up the road.

It took me about 5 seconds to fall asleep once my head hit the pillow.

Noon came and I woke up, packed up the stuffed I carried with me to the room, checked out and hit the road again.

Texas is the longest drive ever, but it did set me up with some fucking beautiful scenery...

In the last breath of the sunset I was driving past some giant "spinning silos" (or at least that's what I've decided to call them, since I don't know what the hell they actually are)...

and it was just, well.... great.

I stopped again around midnight just inside New Mexico.

Sleep ensued.

- Sunday, 01/06/08 -

7am rolled around and I woke up, and got back to the road again.

New Mexico and Arizona were just as boring of a drive as Texas...

except in Arizona I was amused by the "THE THING?" signs that lead me through the state...

one day I definitely plan to stop there when I drive through again, just so I can see how dissapointing it is (because if I remember right, there was an episode of Nickelodeon's Doug, where they were on a road trip and Doug wanted to stop quite bad to see this thing they had advertised for a million miles on his family's trip to somewhere and they went to it, and it was an old potato or something).

I crossed the California state line and the weather was pretty alright,

the sun could be seen every few miles through the clouds and the sky was at least somewhat blue in spots.

Then I got to the damn rocky mountain hills of just outside San Diego and all hell broke loose.

The wind was a bitch, then it decided to start raining like a whore.

It sucked, but I made it through.

So, long story short, I made a 30 hour trip in two days.

By the time I arrived in Encinitas around 4pm I was basically spaced out like a champion.

So I settled in for a bit...

Later a drive was had down by the ocean with me and a couple of others.

This is all I could think to say about how it felt...

I look out the window to my right and can see white from the ocean's waves,

the others in the car are singing just as loud as me...

It's raining and cold, but even with the windows down we don't seem to notice it's night, the sun might as well be shining brighter than it ever has...

It's times like this I realize I've finally made my way back home.

I love California so much, I've never missed a place other than Tennessee before...

and after being back for not even a day I can fully say that I now know I do have two homes.

If only they both weren't on opposite sides of the country....

- Monday, 01/07/08 -

So today was my first full day in good 'ol Encinitas, California.

I slept in and it was lovely.

I woke up and had my first solo drive in the town,

and my first stop was to get some lunch at the always awesome Jack In The Box.

After that my "personal manager" and good friend, Ian, got off work and with that followed at trip to Target where I bought some essentials; shampoo & conditer (to keep my hair nice and clean, duh), a new pillow (and I wanted a Spiderman pillow case, but my hopes were dashed), and of course the ever necessary Season 3 Part 2 of Entourage.

- By the way a big high five to Target for having some quite lovely ladies shopping there

Then we went to Guitar Center where I priced some recording equipment and various instruments.

Then it was time for grocery shopping.

That was pretty much it, not tooooooo much excitement.

......

So that's it for this week.

And actually I'd like to let you know,

that these WILL get quite a bit more interesting....

because now I am finally in California, and recording will begin next week.

And so you know,

as of TODAY, you can officially buy "Red Balloon" the single on iTunes,

so feel free to get that for just 99 cents, it's the full-quality version, and I'd be more than glad to see it make it in the iTunes Top 100 Folk Songs Chart ;)

ALSO,

as of today, if you pick up the newest issue (the February Issue - with Paramore on the cover) of Alternative Press magazine you can find little 'ol me on page 34 in the AP&R section! 

So be sure to check back next Tuesday when I'll be posting the next of these blogs.

I'll have a lot more photos and possibly even a special video to share with you all too ;)

LOVE,

Chad